Different Voices

“I’m not astonished because I know the British talent for fiction. It brings to mind the style of PG Wodehouse.” Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, chairman of the Convention on the EU’s future, reacting to hostile media coverage in Britain about the forum.

“It is absurd to suggest the Europe of 25 will be a tyranny when this wider Europe has been built on tyranny’s defeat. The British public deserves a higher level of debate.” UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw criticizing anti-Convention coverage in some of the nation’s newspapers.

“Had it not been for the Iraq war, the EU flag arriving in the Balkans would have made headlines.” EU foreign policy chief <b.Javier Solana, after a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels. (It did make headlines in this paper!)

“Staff must consider what they would be contributing to their own well-being and to the image of the Commission by striking.” Neil Kinnock, the internal reform commissioner, responding to this week’s walkout by European Union officials over pension changes.